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Heroes8 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Welcome to the Hunt

Blizzard released a new PTR patch late in the evening Monday, appropriately enough, since it was loaded with new terrors of the night in the Nexus. In addition to a new hero, Alarak, Valla and The Butcher were reworked. As the notes mention, Valla's talent diversity was pretty good, but her tree was also loaded with old generics, and the developers felt this was a chance to raise her skill ceiling a bit. The Butcher never really gained a solid place in compeittive play and Blizzard clearly felt that this was a chance to move him in a similar direction: seemingly weak in the early game or to the less skilled player, but a monster (literally) in the right hands in the late game.

Valla: The Demon Hunter

With her damage reduced by 30% and little changes like Hungering Arrow not bouncing if it doesn't hit the initial target, the change to "better in skilled hands" for Valla becomes apparent very quickly. The nerf to her damage is countered by the Hatred stack bonus being increased by 166% (3% to 8%.) In other words, if you can hit your target, you'll generally be killing it. Given that one of Valla's typical problems has been mana consumption and none of her basic costs were reduced except Vault means that they still want an auto attack build to be viable, which is what I'd prefer, anyway.

Level 1: Monster Hunter helps with early laning and the later Q build. Their intent with the change to Vault (+50% damage to first basic attack after Vaulting) is that it can be used in an offensive manner and Caltrops continues that theme (i.e. if the target is fleeing, Vault in front of it and slow it down) but I'd still prefer Hot Pursuit. If I keep my stacks up, I'll have less of a problem keeping my target within range in the first place and I'll be gaining mana.

Level 4: Puncturing Arrow is a great addition to the Q build, since the quest shouldn't take that long to fulfill and really enhances the ability. Punishment is... less so. It's definitely a great laning tool and in the W build can possibly work well in later team fights on chokepoint maps like Cursed Hollow and Tomb. But Creed of the Hunter sings to me. Basic attack speed increase and a base damage increase after a quest? Thanks! I'll take two.

Level 7: Unless you're going Q build, this tier is a little weaker. Repeating Arrow is great for that build, but Death Dealer is way too conditional (you have to wait until the target can be killed by a single AA), so Arsenal might be the best pick here, even if you're not doing the W build. After all, you can deal with the repeated casts engendered by the grenades if you have Hot Pursuit.

Level 10: Most players didn't pick Strafe at this point, because the single stun provided by Rain of Vengeance (you almost never got the second one) was better than the random damage of Strafe. Now that you can target two stuns with Rain, Strafe will never be seen again.

Level 13: Again, the Q build could be really strong, but I'm less sanguine about waiting on a 10 second CD for a heal when I could be getting a constant stream by maintaining my Hatred stacks (which I should be doing, anyway) with Tempered by Discipline. I like the burst defense enabled by Gloom, but I'm less thrilled about sacrifcing all of my Hatred to make it really pay off.

Level 16: I think Frost Shot is a poor outlier here, as the other two choices are more obviously useful, regardless of build. Of course, if you're skilled with Valla, you shouldn't need Seething Hatred, which makes Manticore the likely best pick. If you took Creed earlier, you'll be peeling off an extra 5% of your target's health every 1.5 seconds. If you are having trouble landing hits because your opponents are good at stutter-stepping, Seething is still a good choice to enable your earlier picks, though.

Level 20: It's really hard to turn down the potential +50% attack speed granted by Rancor but you could be using Rain every 20 seconds or so with Storm of Vengeance. Farflight Quiver is a great choice for a poke comp, but it seems out of place as a level 20 pick.

After a few games on the PTR, I can say that the favored build above is still relatively sound and does great damage. However, having Hatred stacks completely disappear after 4 seconds is incredibly punishing, especially in comparison to the old method of having them gradually diminish, so keep that in mind if you're trying for the AA approach.

Fresh Meat!

The main problem with The Butcher in competitive play was how much of a one-trick pony he was. If you set up the perfect kill, great. If not, you get blown up because you have zero escapes or heals to get you out of bad spot. The change to Butcher's trait is what will really make him pay off, since when you die, you'll only lose 10 of your meat stacks, rather than the whole pile. Turning into the first quest trait in the game is just, uh, icing(?) on the blood.. cake. Or something. Like Valla, he also has great talent diversity now.

Level 1: I always favored the Q build with the Butcher, so it's nice to see that InvigorationBlock and Chop Meat are all still present, but Abbatoir is the real question. At first glance it seems like a trap talent, given that you have to complete the trait quest and keep killing heroes to really gain the benefit which may not happen until the really late game. Early reports have people finishing the Fresh Meat quest around level 12 or 13, which means that Abbatoir could really pay off quite soon, in addition to halving the lost stacks while you build up to the quest cap.

Level 4: No real changes here other than the loss of Envenom, but I continue to think that Cheap Shot and Unrelenting Pursuit are more situational than I'd like, so I'd still tend to favor Flail Axe since you can use Hamstring even more often now with its reduced cost.

Level 7: I dislike Victuals because minion deaths will not help you if you're fighting around objectives, since they often won't be present to die. Meat Shield is really intriguing, though, since one of the problems of Ruthless Onslaught is that it often carried you so far from your team that you were the sole target for the enemies' abilities when you arrived. However, I think the more general utility of Insatiable Blade is the best at this tier, since it not only heals you but also keeps you closer to your target so you can keep healing.

Level 10: I will forever be a Lamb [to the] Slaughter[ing] guy. It isolates a target, can even be used to peel in a really bad spot, and doesn't give a glaring warning for three seconds so that everyone can move away from you.

Level 13: All of these talents are viable. I'd tend to favor Brutal Strike most of all, since it combos well with my other preferred picks, but Cleaver can be great in Temple or Tribute fights, as well as for killing Shrine guardians. In the ideal circumstances, Savage Charge could be devastating, but I still think it has less use than the other two.

Level 16: So I'm all Q build, Q build, Q build to this point... until now. Because Crippling Slam has never struck me as a level 16 talent. I like the new Enraged function, but I don't like that I still have to rely on my opponents setting it off. That makes the new Blood Frenzy the pick here, because it also coordinates well with Insatiable Blade and Brutal Strike.

Level 20: Being able to land a Slaughterhouse can be a game-winning move. But I still find myself looking at Bolt for staying alive in that game-winning teamfight or Nexus Blades if you have enough support to wreck people even harder, although if you have Fresh Meat completed, Blades ends up being kind of a "win more" choice.

Likewise, after a few games on the PTR, I can say that late game Butcher is a terror. He's still farily vulnerable to getting blown up but the aftermath isn't nearly as crippling as before and he hits even harder than he used to with the old Blood Frenzy. In that respect, they basically reversed how the two traits (Hatred and Fresh Meat) function and Butcher is definitely the beneficiary.

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